Over the past fifteen years, Cathy Simon’s urban design and architectural practice has focused on the design of the public realm of the urban waterfront. Informed by ongoing research, her talk will present some of the challenges and the opportunities offered by these watery edges, the very real obstacles they present, and the alternative approaches we might take over time to overcome them. Simon will consider layers of time—the contrast and contradiction of old and new—art and culture as catalysts for change, authenticity and identity, rising sea levels, and what Simon calls “the theater of the waterfront.” She will also address the unique ways in which some of the world’s greatest cities meet the water, and how, in the often difficult reinvention of post industrial spaces, architects and planners can create memorable frameworks for diverse communities and public life there in the millennium’s second decade.

Simon is the William A. Bernoudy Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome in the fall 2015. She is a consulting Design Principal at Perkins + Will, a global design firm.

The event will be held in English. You can watch this event live at https://livestream.com/aarome.